Imported waste paper prices increase by at least 8%

Due to the low price of imported waste paper, its fiber is mostly wood fiber, and not only can the quality be guaranteed, but also the products produced with imported waste paper pulp have a higher cost performance than other products. In countries with a shortage of fiber raw materials, low-cost waste paper has become an important raw material for the paper industry, and a large amount of waste paper needs to be imported from abroad each year. However, the recent rising price of imported waste paper has caused an impact on industrial paper and weakened the competitive advantage of our country's products based on waste pulp.

Waste paper accounts for 44% of raw materials

According to statistics from the China National Light Industry Information Center, China imported 687.26 million tons of waste paper in 2002, and the import amount was 732 million US dollars. The import volume increased by 7.06% year-on-year, and the import volume increased by 11.18% year-on-year. At present, in China's papermaking raw material structure, the proportion of waste paper is 44%, and the proportion of wood pulp fiber raw material is 23.1%. In the world, the proportion of waste paper as raw material in the world is 34%, and wood pulp fiber raw material accounts for 62.6%. The proportion of waste paper in China's papermaking raw materials exceeds 10% of the world's level, indicating that China has a large dependence on waste paper resources.

Guo Yongxin, director of the Consultation Division II of the China Light Industry Information Center, pointed out in an interview with reporters that imported waste paper has an important supporting role for the development of the domestic paper industry. In recent years, the number of imported pulp and waste papers in China has grown rapidly, far higher than the growth rate of domestic paper and board production. The ratio between the total volume of imported waste paper and paper production increased from 5.9% in 1997 to 20.1% in 2001, with an annual growth rate of 35.9%.

Guo Yongxin stated that the excessive dependence on imported waste paper resources will cause enterprises to have a crisis in the future development process. Relatively speaking, imported waste paper quality and cheap, many domestic companies rely on the import of raw materials for the production of waste paper, so demand has increased year after year, but on a global scale, the paper's total output growth is limited, the recovery of waste paper Therefore, the use of waste paper is not inexhaustible. The continuous increase in demand will inevitably lead to continued price increases.

Reduced price difference with imported wood pulp

Guo Yongxin stated that due to the limited forest resources in China, waste paper resources can be used as a substitute for wood pulp raw materials, but since 2001, the price of imported wood pulp, which is an important raw material for papermaking, has dropped rapidly, between imported wood pulp and imported waste paper. The spread narrowed sharply. By the first half of 2002, the spread between the two had narrowed to 296 U.S. dollars, only 56% of the spread in 2000.

From the current development trend, the demand for waste paper in China will continue to increase in the future. Relevant statistics show that the ratio of waste paper use in China to global waste paper usage has increased from 5.92% in 1994 to 8.97% in 2001, with 11.43% in 1999. In 2000, the total amount of waste paper imported by all countries in the world was 26.4 million tons, of which China’s imports accounted for 14% of all countries’ imports. In 2001, the total amount of waste paper imports from all countries in the world was 33.63 million tons, accounting for China’s imports. The proportion increased to 19%.

Since 1997, China’s waste paper imports have been increasing at an annual rate of about 40%. According to Guo Yongxin’s analysis, in the past 4 to 5 years, China’s imported waste paper prices have increased at an annual rate. This year, due to further increase in demand, The price of imported waste paper is expected to increase by more than 8%.

Industrial paper will be impacted

It is reported that at present domestic household paper accounts for 20% of all paper products, and the remaining 80% are all industrial paper and writing paper. Since domestic paper requires the use of disposable fibers as raw materials, the greatest impact on the increase in the import price of waste paper will be the production of various types of industrial paper.

Guo Yongxin stated that many of the important raw materials for domestic paper products are imported waste paper. Some news paper production materials are even 100% imported waste paper. At the same time, the middle sandwich of most packing board boards is also waste paper. It is understood that in newsprint, except that coated paper is made from 100% chemical fiber, most of the rest of the cultural paper uses waste paper as raw material. Therefore, the increase in the price of imported waste paper will have the greatest impact on domestic packaging paper and a part of cultural paper, which will increase production costs and lose market competitiveness. Once the production cost of domestic enterprises rises, foreign high-grade paper products will certainly occupy the mid-range of our country. Paper market share.

To reduce excessive dependence on imported waste paper, the most fundamental measure is to increase the supply rate of domestic pulp. At present, China is starting a forestry-paper integration project, which will increase the supply rate of domestic pulp from the current 7% to 15% in 2010. At the same time, with the continuous development of society, consumers are increasingly pursuing the grade of paper, and high-end new products have become the profit zone of the industry. Therefore, enterprises should consider using wood pulp as the main raw material to produce high-end products, instead of using waste paper as the main raw material to produce medium and low-grade products and increase the ratio of wood pulp in China's papermaking raw materials.